My comment about the advantages of Bristol flexibility on intercalation was intended to be useful. DD is lucky. Many medical schools do not allow external intercalation, or such intercalations are limited only to the top 10% of the year group. It has meant that she has had the advantages of a more hands on medical course (she is very dyslexic so practical suits) but then the chance of an additional year specialising in the area she is most interested in, at a department that is probably ranked top in Europe.
She also has the odd advantage over internal students that the mark she gets will not impact on her Bristol degree, whereas it does for internal students for whom intercalation is part of a six year degree. This means she has been able to take the harder, albeit clinically useful, options, mainly accessed by non medic Masters students, and not worry about what grade she ends up with. She says there are 5 PhD places available, but that as an external the flexibility would not exist for her to apply. Which is fine. She is content to complete her medical degree and then decide next steps. Assuming she does get a good grade (and she has worked very hard, and because of Covid, with few distractions) the door would be open to apply for a Masters, either in London or the US.
Essentially she is back to where she was at sixth form and the decision of whether to be a doctor or go into an allied field. She might well end up as a doctor within a multi disciplinary team.
I was probing the Nottingham intercalation, as it is often proposed as the best of all worlds. However previous discussion seems to suggest, from people probably know more than me, that the Nottingham BMedSci degree is not the same as a BSc and did not give as many points (when intercalations provided points.)
Bristol, and presumably other medical schools, factor in time for extended work. So for three weeks before the start of her second year, DD was in a group tracking a life long disease, through diagnosis, hospital and community support and so on. They were expected to do further research and then produce an essay. And similarly last summer a group of them, under the supervision of a consultant, produced a patient guide, which is just about to go into practice. Not the same as dissertation, but an interesting change nonetheless. (And which is why I warn of short holidays - so less scope for earning.)
DD suggests that no one really talks about points needed for F1 & F2. They are mainly focussed on the here and now. The change in the points system might have some impact on the numbers intercalating, but by and large people intercalate to give greater depth to the area they are most interested in.
Good luck to everyone. DD had three interviews in March, but luckily got two offers. By then she had planned her gap year so thoroughly she asked if she could defer. Two of her friends were without offers. One got a place at Imperial on reapplication, the other did astonishingly well in his gap year job, and realised that medicine was his parent's interest, not his. It all worked out fine in the end.